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by HalRose



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Earthborn (Mass Effect), F/M, Heavy Angst, Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, Post-Mass Effect 3, Shakarian - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24815569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalRose/pseuds/HalRose
Summary: What do you do when your worst fears are confirmed? - After Mass Effect 3
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





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**Garrus**

They’d radioed me to say they’d found her. 

We’d been searching for months, when they’d cleared the rubble and found her. I watch as they bring her body – broken, battered and bloodied…. Not like how I remember her.

I’d told her to come back alive, and now it was going to be an empty galaxy without her.  
She looked so peaceful, like she was only sleeping. She’s still wearing the ring I gave her before the final mission – an engagement ring, a promise that we’d always be together.  
I can see it because the gloves of her armour are gone, ruined… but her ring has been exposed. We’re the first ones to find her, so I’m glad they haven’t looted her body.

She’d promised me that she would return to me – she’d already died once before, alone… scared.

And she’d been alone and scared this time, I know Athena. I know my Shepard. She had no other family. She only had those who were on the Normandy as her family, she considered some of us her family, like Liara, like Tali and Joker and...me.

She’d ended the Reaper War, and wouldn’t be here to see the end results. We were going to retire, we were going to do whatever we wanted…

They take her body into the Cargo Hold of the Normandy and leave me alone with her.  
I’m numb; this doesn’t feel real. I told her we were a team and we did things together, but she sent me away so I could live.

I should have been with her when she passed. What is the point of living, when her laughter doesn’t fill the air?  
Why does everything matter, when she won’t be there?

I caress her face, tears falling down my face. Turians don’t cry… at least, that is what I was taught. But I know all I’ve been taught is wrong.

“Shepard…” I whisper weakly,

I kiss her lips – they’re as cold as my heart was when I took up the name Archangel.  
I pull away and assess any damage – like it even matters any more, when she isn’t breathing.

If she was alive right now, she’d be telling me to get back to work, whilst holding me close as she’s relived to see me.  
She’d be happy we came back for her, that we never gave up.  
She’d thank us.

But there will be none of that – Commander Shepard is gone, and the news spreads fast. The Alliance have already been told, and I hear that they will give Shepard a full military funeral.  
But it’ll still seem like one big joke.  
She has to come back, right?

She’ll wake up and act like it’s one big joke and we’ll live the life we planned together.

But, I have to face the facts. She won’t wake up.

She’s gone, and so am I. There is no point in living any more, not when everything we ever fought for, was right with her.  
How am I supposed to go on, without her?

There is no Vakarian without Shepard.

Liara has to pull me away from Athena’s body, after hours of silence and she makes me eat, even though I don’t feel like eating. Time means nothing any more.

But still, time goes on.

It doesn’t get any easier. It only gets harder as the days pass by and people won’t stop talking about Commander Shepard and how she gave her life for the cause, and people wonder how long she’ll be remembered.

They don’t care about her friends, they don’t care about the people she loved and how this will affect them.  
Soon enough, they’ll forget about her. Forget that she is the reason we’re all still alive and people will move on.

But I won’t. 

Years go by, I never married, I never moved on and I’m old. Nothing much has changed, but I go to bed and the next thing I know, I’m in a bar. And a familiar figuring is waiting for me.

“I told you that I’d wait for you, Vakarian.” she says.

My Shepard. 

I figure I’ve died. And now I’m back where I belong. By her side.

“It’s been so long, I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”

“You’re here now, Garrus. That’s all that matters. We have eternity together.”

I notice she’s still wearing her ring and she notices me staring.

“You’re the only one for me, Garrus. You always have been.”

I don’t know what to say. We kiss and she tells me everything is going to be okay, and she takes me by the hand, and leads me away.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“To spend eternity together. We have so much to catch up on, Vakarian.”

I don’t complain, I let myself follow her.


End file.
